1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an article or device for wiping or cleaning the surface of a handheld device, such as a touch screen.
2. Related Art
Hand-held computing devices and smart phones, such as a BlackBerrys®, iPhones®, iPads®, etc., have become increasingly popular in recent years. One common feature of these and other devices is a display screen that may also be a means for receiving user input. For example, the now familiar touch screens allow users to utilize their hands, fingers, or a stylus to input information into, and interact with, the display of a hand-held or other computing device. However, one problem with these devices is that the interface or screen can easily become dirty due to being routinely touched, etc., even with normal use, which not only detracts from the appearance of the device and obscures the viewability of the screen, but may also make the device less responsive to user input due to interference.
One approach to address this problem has been to place a removable protective cover or sheet (made of a transparent or see-through material) over the screen that allows tactile input to be detected while protecting the screen. However, these covers can be difficult to place evenly on the screen surface, and they have the inconvenience and cost of needing to be periodically removed, discarded and replaced with a new sheet, in part due to dirt and other marks building up on the protective cover itself over time. Thus, there remains a need in the art for an improved article or device for cleaning device screens that does not require cover sheets and that is simple to use, easy to carry and inexpensive to produce.